Why is PM so Tight-knit?

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Hey friend,

Welcome to the 44th weekly edition of Pillow Talk! This is where I share my unfiltered thoughts on life, business, and property management.

This week, I’m sharing why I think property management is such a tight-knit community.

I have been connected to the property management industry for a long time. I used to run acquisitions and business development at a BTR operator. After closing, I would refer investors to our property management partners in the region. So I worked with many great PMs who taught me a lot during my time in that role. It’s how I met my good friends DD Garzon and Bryan Jenkins.

Why is Property Management so Tight-knit?

It wasn’t until I co-founded Blanket and got involved in NARPM, however, that I saw how tight-knit property management actually is. Todd Ortscheid perfectly describes the feel of the PM community in this recent post when he says:

“As we all know, this is a small business… We attend the same conferences, we joke in the webinar chats with each other, we’re on the same Facebook groups, etc. We all tend to share information with each other, have drinks together, and generally have a good time together… Because of this “small town feel” of the PM industry, high pressure sales has never really been something that’s a good fit here.”

That last sentence is referring to the recent Beagle controversy. If you haven’t heard the story, basically multiple property managers inside the Crane community chat shared that Beagle is using ridiculously high pressure sales tactics. Some PMs claim getting multiple phone calls a week, even after asking not to be contacted again.

Peter Lohmann then posted about it on LinkedIn calling them out. The comments are crazy.

Then Todd got a hold of the story and was actually able to set up a call with Beagle’s Chief Strategy Officer, Greg Knox, and Erika Lee, the Head of Brand of Corgi, Beagle’s parent company. He wrote about the call in the post I mentioned above.

Corgi is worth $2.6 Billion and has between 150-200 employees. Beagle has about 100, according to LinkedIn. Point being that both Greg and Erika are very busy people, but evidently the organization felt their response to the controversy had to carry some weight. And Todd reports that by the time of their call, Greg had already talked to his team and implemented new reports and processes to ensure people asking not to be contacted again won’t be.

Here’s My Theory

I’d guess it’s happened before, but I don’t know of any other industry where two operators could mobilize their influence to get the attention of a billion+ dollar company and their subsidiary to change their behavior in a few days’ time. But it’s because property management is a small, tight-knit world that they could. Few industries are collaborative and supportive enough to band together in such a way. As Todd puts it:

“Many other industries are very tight-lipped and view everyone as a competitor they’re trying to kill, and that vibe just doesn’t play here.”

I have wondered for a while why it’s like this, and I think I’ve come up with two good reasons:

1. Because NARPM pulls everyone together. NARPM members know it’s an incredibly open and collaborative association. Those shared drinks and good times Todd mentions are usually happening at a NARPM conference. The most publicly active, most vocal PMs and vendors in the industry are all actively involved in NARPM. Plus, there is a sort of revolving door in the NARPM sphere. How many people do you know working for a vendor who used to work in a PMC? And vice versa? Those people stay connected and see each other multiple times a year at conferences, which is one reason high-pressure sales tactics don’t work in this industry. Vendors who have a personal relationship with their clients aren’t comfortable using those tactics, and so the industry isn’t used to them like some others are. So they’re immediately rejected with force.
   
   
2. Because property managers are bonded through shared hardship. Few professions take beatings from all sides the way PMs do. Every property manager I know has multiple stories of nightmare clients who treat them and their staff horribly. Tenants can be worse. And the public loves to unfairly group PMs in with shady landlords and real estate agents. PMs get hate from every angle!

Other fields where coworkers share the same stressors and traumas also form tight-knit communities. Professions like nursing, law enforcement, and flight crews are famous for it. And I can tell you from my time in the Israeli Navy, the small town feel of PM is not dissimilar to the camaraderie that forms within military units. You can’t avoid bonding with the people you share a foxhole with.

This is a powerful thing, and I’m happy to see property managers wielding it for their own well being!

The Roundup

PM content worth the click

• Property managers have a value prop problem
• Emotional Support Animal policy update
• A few tips when looking for a business to buy
• Managing property in Los Angeles is not for the faint of heart 😰

Good night 😴

Lior Abramovich
Co-founder, CEO